Buffy's "Vacation"
by Happy Meal w Legs
Summary: Buffy takes a break...


Buffy's "Vacation" a Buffy fanfic by Happy Meal with Legs

Buffy's "Vacation" a Buffy fanfic by Happy Meal with Legs 

DISCLAIMER: Buffy and related characters are NOT mine, they belong to King Joss and the nice people at Mutant Enemy. (All hail King Joss!!) 

Author's note: I was sick and tired of reading and trying to write stories within the Buffy continuity, so I decided to color outside the lines a little. I don't know much about Buffy and Angel's relationship, I have no clue who the Annointed one is, I can't stand Riley OR Dawn, so I wrote a story with only the original Scoobies. This story can be read as taking place during any "summer break". Enjoy!

"Are you sure about this, guys?" Buffy asked for the tenth time that day as she climbed the few steps into the idling Greyhound bus.

"You deserve it, Buffs," Xander assured her and Giles added "In light of recent events...a holiday would be beneficial... We'll be fine for a few days, Buffy, just go."

Willow handed her the backpack she'd packed a few things in. "Don't worry about us, just have fun! You could pretend that you're going to an exotic place and - what?" she stopped when Xander gave her a look.

Buffy laughed. "I know it's not the most exciting or exotic place, but it's away from certain hellmouth's and it's within my budget range. Both pluses. Are you sure you're okay with this?"

"Yes!! Go!!" The three friends stepped back and waved as the bus door closed and it pulled away.

"Wow. Three Buffy-less days..." Xander said quietly. "Besides all of the complaining and us having to practically _throw_ her onto the bus, she seemed excited to go." Willow and GIles nodded in agreement.

Buffy dropped her backpack on the seat beside her, thankful that the bus wasn't full. "I don't know why I let them talk me into this..." she muttered as she hunkered down in her seat when the bus passed a graveyard. As they rumbled past the sign reading "Now leaving Sunnydale, come visit us again soon!" Buffy peered around the charter. Among others, there were a young couple giggling near the front, a priest reading in the fifth row, a woman and her small squirming child behind him, a weird looking punk in his twenties a few rows behind Buffy, bopping along with his Discman, his earphones cord swinging like dangly jewelry, a guy staring out the window at the fast receding Sunnydale in the back. Buffy relaxed...everyone was in the sun, and none seemed to be a threat, though in a few hours, Buffy imagined that kid would be as his mother told him for the third time to keep quiet. Buffy laid her head back on the seat, blew an errant strand of hair out of her face and closed her eyes.

A few hours later Buffy was standing in front of her hotel room door, fumbling her bag, a wooden stake and the little plastic key-card. Finally she decided to put her back-pack on her back; that was much better. A sweep of the room - no-one. She sat on the bed and looked around, seemingly bored. "Now what?" She spied the phone. "I'll just check up on them..." as she dialed Giles number. No answer. Disappointed she hung up and headed for the bathroom for a nice, hot, relaxing shower.

As the phone in his house was ringing, Giles was reloading his crossbow. Willow, shaking the dust of the vampire Giles just poofed out of her hair, ran to help Xander who was struggling with a hungry vampire that was holding him up against a mausoleum. After Willow staked her, Xander looked up "I think I went to school with her -- Watch it, Giles!!" A big muscular vampire had just snuck up behind him. A startled Giles reflexively brought his elbow up in defense. It connected with the vampires jaw and he staggered backwards. Giles spun and shot him with the crossbow. The vampire exploded into dust and Giles wiped his brow. "I'm so glad that shot didn't go wide..."

"Is that enough for tonight?" Xander asked. "How many was that?"

"Twelve," Willow told him, looking very much the war survivor, dirt and dust smeared all over her face, clothing ripped and torn, seeming, overall, very tired. Giles looked at Xander, who looked the same. Giles supposed that he looked like that as well. "Yes, I think that we should be getting home." He said. "We'll meet at my place tomorrow evening, same time."

"Same scooby time, same scooby channel." Xander said. "Should I bring capes?"

Willow laughed at her friend. "You have capes?"

Buffy stepped out of the tub and toweled off. She pawed through her bag for her pajamas and found them near the bottom. She hefted them in her hand and looked back in her bag at the new black tank top she'd packed. She thought for a moment, then threw her pj's on to the soft bed. "I'll just go out for a little while, not long..." she told herself as she pulled on her jeans and tank. Pausing at the full-length mirror, she looked at herself: nope, couldn't see the stake in her hip pocket - she was good to go.

At the club downtown, Buffy ordered a drink from the bartender who was wearing fireman's turn-out pants and a skin tight white tee, complete with yellow suspenders and black helmet. This club was converted from an old fire hall, had a fire fighing theme; sirens and red flashers, a pole in the middle of the dance floor and lights that were filtered and moved to look like shimmering flames. Club 911 was hot, smelled like diesel and was crowded and noisy, but Buffy thought that, well, if she had friends here, it'd be a cool place to hang out. The music was good, and there were several second-glance worthy guys here, _several_. Buffy smiled. This was a good idea, she reminded herself to thank Willow, Xander and Giles when she got back. Buffy danced with lots of people, and introduced herself to _and_ was introduced to a lot more. She was having a ball, even when she tailed a vampire and a girl he'd picked up to the back parking lot and let him have it. She really should go on holidays more often. She slept soundly on her soft, clean hotel bed until late the next morning.

All day Saturday, Buffy did the obligatory tourist-y things. She visited the museum, the park, the shops and the street market where she looked at homemade jams and jellies, baking, handicrafts and jewelry. She also visited the library, clucking her tongue at the pitiful selection of books in the occult section. The only books that they had in the library on vampires were Bram Stoker's _Dracula_ and _The Vampire Chronicles _by Anne Rice.

Later that afternoon, Buffy had a early supper (a hot dog and a Coke from a street vendor, delicious, if a little greasy) while sitting in the shade of a large leafy tree in the city park, with the library's copy of _Interview With the Vampire_. "Oh, Lestat, you can come to Sunnydale anytime," she murmured as she got into the book, trying to ignore the glaring errors about vampires made by Anne Rice. After supper, she walked back to her hotel, taking pictures here and there for Willow, who bought her one of those disposable cameras just for the trip. 

When Buffy got back to her room, she took another long hot shower, a worry-free luxury; she didn't have to face the disgustingly high water bill. As she stepped out of the bathroom, her towel wrapped high on her head, she tried Giles number again. Same as before, no answer. She sat down on the bed, and with an accusatory glance at the phone, opened her book again and spent the next few hours reading. When she finished, she found that it was only 9:30. "Wow!" She checked her watch...yes, 9:30. Buffy raised her eyebrows and scratched her head, then shrugged as she decided to go to the club again. A very short time later, Buffy was dancing in the middle of a very large noisy crowd. She was having a blast! She was feeling very little guilt about leaving her friends at home patrolling. 

Giles hit the ground hard and rolled several meters, finally coming to rest at the foot of a mausoleum. Panting, he regained his feet and ran back into the fracas, wielding a large, rather ornate cross. He dodged Xander, who was busy flying the other way: thrown, probably by the same vampire that hurled him just a minute ago. Giles pressed the cross to the head of the vampire that was just about to taste Willow. The vampire bawled out a stream of obscenities and lunged at Giles, who, by then, was ready with a stake. Willow ran to the bag of weapons at the bottom of the tree where Giles had dropped them upon encountering the seven vampires and grabbed as many stakes as she could hold. She sprinted over to Xander, who was clambering back to his feet, groaning "How does Buffy _do_ this every night?" The two divided the stakes and ran different ways. 

After a very long, harsh battle, and only two of the vampires slain, the three decided that pehaps they would regroup at Giles' house. They ran. Fast. After restocking with stakes, holy water, and an assortment of weaponry, they arrived back at the cemetary that they had fled from to find the five remaining vampires still there, gloating. The element of surprise was theirs and they made it their own, stealthily creeping up on the monsters from behind the same mausoleum that Giles had been flung against not too long ago. Before the vampires even got up from the ground, the Scoobies were upon them. This time, it wasn't even a struggle....The remaining vampires were dusted in a very short time.

--==~~the next night~~==--

"Tonight should be slower than last night...Buffy's, er, tally of vampires she's slain are always lowest on Sunday evenings." 

"Oh, her kill-count. Yeah, Sunday's slow." WIllow affirmed.

"Good. I've got bruises on top of my bruises. No more bruises for me, thank you very much." Xander rubbed his ribs gently.

--==~~A few hours later~~==--

Pleasantview Memorial Gardens

"Is it that flower over on that grave?" Willow pointed. "That red one?"

"Nope. Guess again." Xander told her.

Willow gazed around, searching for something that that Xander spied with his little eye, something that was red. 

"But there's nothing else!" She shook her head and got inspiration. "My hair?!?"

"Yep! Your turn!"

--==~~Three hours and four cemetaries later~~==--

"So it's bigger than a bread box...." Xander pondered.

"As much as I hate to interrupt your game," Giles said quietly, "Vampires."

Xander and WIllow jumped to their feet.

"Before we stake them, we should thank 'em for breaking our monotony, I think," Xander mentioned.

"What? You _like_ Twenty Questions!! It was "cloud" anyway..."

"_Cloud_? I never woulda got that!"

The vampires advanced slowly, not yet noticing the bottle of holy water and stakes. The four of them fanned out. The biggest one announced "I get the cute red-head, guys." Willow looked faintly disgusted before flinging blessed water over the four of them.

The three that hadn't spoken screamed and began to smoke. The big one glared, red blisters rising on his face whree the holy water touched. He lunged, but Xander pulled a stake and nailed him in the chest. The vamp jerked back. "Dammit! Missed!" As Xander yelled and ran again for the big vamp, Giles hit two of the three littler ones with "flying fatality" from the cross-bow. Xander lunged and staked the big vampire again. This time the stake went home. The vampire exploded into dust.

Willow was holding the last vampire at bay with a cross and the remainder of the holy water. Xander came at it from behind and drove his stake in.

"Well, is that it for tonight?" he asked casually.

Buffy rolled up from the cement of the alley and lunged, driving her shoulder into the vampire, feeling very much like a grid iron offensive tackle as she propelled him backwards towards the dumpster. She could feel his hot breath on her back. She gave a final push and rolled again as the 2X4 sticking out of the garbage bin punched through the vampire with a sickening ~squelch~ sound. He shrieked and burst into dust. Buffy rose to her feet and pushed her hair back. She picked her stake off the ground where it had dropped when the vampire that she impaled with it poofed. Five tonight. Wow. With the one she had slain the other night, she had rid a whole town of vampires. Cool! She needed to go on vacation more often! Buffy dusted her slacks off and started again towards the night club for another night of dancing.

--==~~The Next Morning~~==--

Buffy jumped down the steps of the Greyhound and hugged her friends with an enthusiastic "Thank You!! Thank You!!!" Giles sheilded his sensitive eyes from the sun to spare his aching head any more pain, Willow winced at Buffy's touch and Xander stood back, wondering how obvious his bruises were.

Yes, I know. It's a little fluffy, but hey, at least it's an ending, right? Like it? Hate it? Drop me a line, let me know! [Happy_Meal_w_Legs@yahoo.com][1]

Author's Note: "Club 911" _actually_ exists. It is a night club in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. There was a short time that I lived in Lethbridge, but I never had the opportunity to visit the place 'cause I was underage at the time, ~sniff~, so the description of it is mostly fictional.

   [1]: mailto:Happy_Meal_w_Legs@yahoo.com



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